Space-A Disappointment

Monday, Feb. 12, we cleaned, did laundry, and packed.  That took the whole day, lol.  Bob did take the younger kids to McDonalds for a special treat for lunch, and they brought home fun "Happy Meal" boxes in German, plus some Snoopy toys.  You can tell it was a fun special treat because we *never* get happy meals at home!

Tuesday morning we packed up the car and headed back to Ramstein, leaving at 9:00.  I had checked the Ramstein terminal space-a page earlier, and it said 50 seats were being released, so we were all feeling pretty good about our chances!

After we got gas in the rental cars, we even had time to stop by the Officers' Club to take a picture!  This is where my parents met, back in 1963!

But then we got to the terminal.  After signing in and being marked present, we started talking to the others waiting around.  One group of retirees had been trying to get out for the past WEEK!  They were actually on an airplane to McGuire earlier that morning, and it took off, flew out for 1 1/2 hours--and then turned around and headed back.  There was some mechanical problem, so they took off again and limped on back, but they weren't allowed to take passengers or extra luggage.  How disappointing for those 30 space-a passengers!  So all those people, plus many, many more were waiting to get on this same flight we were.  And we were at the very bottom of the list.  There were at least 70 people ahead of us!

My one regret this trip was that we hadn't really gotten any souvenirs, other than the books from the bookstore and the items from the Roman fort.  But in all our walking, there was no "souvenir shop" that we passed, and even in Ludwigsburg Palace, their gift shop was closed for the winter!

Because we were early, however, Caleb, Jonathan, Anna, and I ran across the street to the big KMCC complex, where there is a little Express Shoppette that retirees are allowed to shop at (we can't use the regular BX and commissary or get gas on base because we're not stationed here).  They had some fun little things, so we bought another magnet for our fridge, plus Caleb and Jonathan got these nice glass steins (which were much, MUCH cheaper than the lovely ceramic ones).  So we came back over and managed to fit them into our suitcases (after Caleb and Jonathan inaugurated their steins with coke from the vending machine).

The USO upstairs in the terminal was having a special Valentine's Day brunch, so we all went through the line and got scrambled eggs, hash browns, french toast, and cupcakes.

But alas, after waiting around for a long time, the plane only ended up taking 25 passengers.  Not even all the active duty people got out.  And there were no flights on the horizon for Wednesday, so that meant all those same people would be waiting for the net flight to BWI on Wednesday, same as us.  Sigh.

We decided to see if we could stay in a TLF ("temporary living facility") on base, so we would be close as we tried to get out.  Bob went across the street, and yes, there was a 4 bedroom unit available!  Retirees can stay on a space-available basis in lodging on Air Force bases in Germany, but not on Army posts, because ... well, no good reason except the Army is interpreting SOFA differently and more stringently.  We also stopped by the car rental office (we drove there this time, which was much nicer, lol) and were abl to extend the use of both cars.  Whew!  We were disappointed to not get out, but at least we had cars and a close place to stay!